


the end begins with "once upon a time..."

by thelabours



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Brief Mentions of Blood, Gen, M/M, MatsuHana Week, an overuse of metaphors, and murder, of course there has to be murder it's a fairy tale, this is kinda dark and twisted oops, vaguely shippy yet again, who knows maybe they're not really metaphors (wink wonk)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 07:36:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11618952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelabours/pseuds/thelabours
Summary: in which hanamaki and matsukawa are haunted by their deeds because not all fairy tales have happy endings. not if they can help it.





	the end begins with "once upon a time..."

**Author's Note:**

> day 3 (i'm still doing this wooooo !!) the prompt was fairy tales
> 
> i literally could've done anything
> 
> but i did this

//

There are skeletons in Takahiro’s closet. They grin ominously at him whenever he opens the door to pick out a tie.

They _say_ things to him.

 _What if everyone finds out_ and _how could you do this_ and _don't you have a conscience_.

Takahiro shuts the door and slumps against it. Memories bubble and rise up behind his eyelids, begging to be revisited.

(A single glass slipper, smashed. A pool of blood. A prince shivering in fear.

“Why.”

It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t quite a statement either.

Takahiro flashes his fangs at him and disappears in a blur of smoke and the smell of sulphur).

The skeletons are still whispering behind his back. He looks to the bed and sees a lump of blankets.

_Issei._

 

//

 

Issei smiles his fanged smile at her in the second before the mermaid kills herself.

 _That makes thirteen_ , he thinks, smugly.

He watches impassively as she dissolves into foam, tinged red and white and tragic.

(“ _Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return_ ,” he says to thin air.

 _Or foam_ , he thinks, impassively.

He watches the cruise ship in the distance; a wedding party, a queen with her king.)

He returns home in a swirl of ash and misery.

He hopes Takahiro remembers to bring hamburger steaks for dinner.

 

//

 

It’s dark and foggy. The cold seeps into the nooks and crannies this time of the year, Takahiro notes.

He’s sitting at the window sill, outside looking in. He’s waiting for the flying boy, but he’s content to wait for him. He doesn’t have to wait long.

“Where…where is she?” The boy asks.

He looks exactly like he did half a century ago.

“ _Where’s Wendy?_ ” The boy screams in desperation.

“You’re a smart boy. Figure it out,” Takahiro says smoothly, gesturing to the window.

(Inside, three little girls are crying. Their mother, Wendy, was the victim of a terrible— _terribly messy_ , Takahiro admits—fire.)

The flying boy leaves without a word, eyes dripping remnant of memories, tasting death in them. No amount of pixie dust can bring back what he misses most.

Takahiro picks up the felt green hat and yanks the scarlet feather out. Its end is sharp.

As is his grin.

 

//

 

The rose crumbles in Issei’s palm, just like the beast in his lover’s arms.

After all, beauty doesn’t grant happiness (and neither does fate).

The Beast is a beast foremost—a numinous legend, a vessel (broken and not at the same time, a state of semi-obidience) for fear and love and hope and all others synonymous with it’s own name. 

_Monster._

( _Didn’t they call Eros the most dangerous being in the cosmos? Look how Psyche suffered._

Issei watches them bury the beast in the icy loneliness of the castle courtyard. Soon his princess will join him. Not quite yet, but soon).

Two toned _What-ifs_ catch in his throat, swallowed before they can get out, swallowed along with the creampuffs he buys for their dinner at the bakery.

 

//

 

They’re both present this time.

They hold hands and wear identical smiles—slightly on the maniacal side—as they finish burying the last fairy godmother.

They watch over princes, princesses, and everyone in between fall to ruins.

Especially the Sleeping One.

Giving the Malicious One the poisoned needle was the easy part. Watching it unfold without intervening when the prince had arrived was not. In the end, the princess had fallen. Just like everyone else.

Needless to say, empires and kingdoms, realms and dominions, would never see a fairy godmother again.

 

//

 

Gathering _blood of thy enemy_ and _deadly nightshade_ and _moon tears_ hadn’t been easy.

They’d had to kill and ravage and burn for them.

It had been a necessity, Issei had insisted. Takahiro had merely shrugged and dug in his ankles as he pulled the roots of young saplings out.

Making poison wasn’t their line of work but they knew someone who does. Someone who was in need of its use, too.

They inject apple after apple on the tree in the castle courtyard and report to the queen. She dismisses them with a wave of her hand. They leave, fully satisfied, a curse and a shattered mirror in their wake.

(They hear about a prince eating the apple in his castle. He falls to his knees and doesn’t wake up. In another corner of the land, a fair maiden awaits her prince, itching to taste freedom she’ll never get).

They laugh at that.

 

//

 

Heartbeats pass in twos.

Heartbreaks? In forevers. Issei knows this.

Issei’s ghosts linger around him like mouldy corners in a damp room. Like a bad smell that would _not_ go away.

They _say_ things to him.

 _How could you_ and _you will be punished_ and _why should you deserve a happy ending_.

His eyes travel to the body slumped against him. He smiles softly, his fangs barely peaking out.

_Takahiro._

//

**Author's Note:**

> for vi and simran; everything i write, i write for you (including this shitty emo poetry pretentious nonsense i know u luv it;;;;)
> 
> my inspiration was from [THIS](http://vanillasweet.tumblr.com/post/155709877705/theres-a-wicked-smile-as-fate-smashes)
> 
>  
> 
> [and *BANGS POTS TOGETHER* YOU CAN CHECK OUT MY FAV POET SUSHI'S POETRY HERE](https://www.instagram.com/iknowsush/)
> 
> im friends w her irl can u believe it hashtag blessed go follow her shes a !!! Good Egg
> 
> also maybe hmu on tumblr (@iceandbrimstone) or twt (@kirikamis)


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